Matthew 2:12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Matthew 2:22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.

Tonight, as I often do, I opened up biblegateway.com and asked the Lord what scripture it was He wanted me to read. He said Matthew 2:12. I looked it up and you see it above. I tilted my head and wondered why. I said, ok Lord, is there another one? He said Matthew 2:22. I looked it up to discover what it was, wondering if they would make sense together. No disputing the theme, eh? No way.

We live in an age of incredible technology, astute science, an obsession with critical thinking, in an age when grad school is the new undergrad in these good old United States. It’s a dangerous time to be alive. You say, “Dangerous?” I say dangerous. It’s the easiest time in our history to discount the spirit because the brain is so glorified.

God is a Spirit. He’s not a brain. He’s not a computer. He’s the most wise, the most brilliant, the most everything Spirit being who communicates through our spirit. He never sleeps, nor does our spirit. Ever wonder why God so often speaks through dreams to people? I think it’s because He speaks Spirit to spirit and when we are asleep, our intellect is not functioning to block Him out nearly as efficiently. We tend to hear our own thoughts way too clearly. We tend to hear our own emotions very intensely. We tend to not even know when our spirits are communicating. We are deaf to the One voice that means the most.

To listen to what His Spirit is communicating to us is the most efficient mechanism for learning truth- and it’s the very thing we have “learned” so well to drown out and discount. In the first scripture above, the wise men were given a dream instructing that the should not go near Herod. The “wise men” listened to a dream and followed it. Can you imagine any of the top intellects in our society heeding a dream as truth?

Let me tell you one. Bob Bobola. Bob is a man I met years and years ago. He was one of the engineers for Apollo 13. He told the story that the media didn’t tell. It’s the one God used to bring him to salvation.

All of the greatest minds of men tried to bring those astronauts back down to safety. For 72 hours they had not slept and nothing they had done worked. They were desperate men. The President declared a national day of prayer (imagine that!). Soon after, a man walked into the room and asked all of these top engineers in the world if they had successfully detached the lunar landing module. They said they had done everything they could to do so but had been unsuccessful. He said wonderful, that he knew how to rescue the astronauts. He told them he had gotten the answer IN A DREAM a year before. (I am totally serious here.) Well, these “brilliant” men were desperate enough that they listened to the man’s dream and decided to follow it. Those astronauts lived because of a dream. Because of God. Because of prayer. Furthermore, when they were planning to drop the landing module into the sea, one of them said, despite the best weather forecasting known to man, that he “had a feeling” that they should change the landing site. So……. they did! They would never had made decisions on “feelings” but had come to a certain surrender and belief that a power greater than they was at work. Sure enough, there was a hurricane that did an amazing 180 degree turn and was in the exact location of the originally chosen spot. But they landed safely in an entirely different ocean.

Put aside the computer. Put aside the phone. Put aside the television. Breathe deeply, elax, read some scripture, put on some praise music and be still. Pray to discern the difference between the voice of your brain, the voice of your emotions, and the voice of your spirit. God’s on the other end of the spirit line. He’s dialing right now. He loves you.

Takeaway: It takes a decision to make the time to put aside this “world” and get in touch with our spirit so that we can get in touch with His Spirit. God may communicate with us in a dream, in a thought, through an image- things intangible. Don’t miss His voice. Joseph, the father of our Lord, followed the directive he received in a dream and thus protected infant Jesus and fulfilled the scriptures that He would become a Nazarene. It’s important.

Prayer: Father, please grow my inner spirit, let me know it well and cause me to desire being silent and still in Your presence that I may hear Your voice. And Lord, if you want to speak to me in a dream, I am open to you doing so and will not discount the possibility. I hold onto this scripture and ask You to make it real in my every day life. John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Amen.